James Price Point; rough road, but mind blowing location
The more we travel, the more truly unbelievable places we come across, and some of them are more well known than you might think. If there’s a place north of Broome that a lot of people know about, its James Price Point.
With a huge history of an LNG plant proposal being knocked back, most people would be able to tell you roughly where it is.
However, its not massively visited, and that’s a shame; it is nothing short of magnificent. If you haven’t been there, it’s a place you really need to add to your bucket list.
We’ve stayed at a number of places on the Cape Leveque Peninsula, and on our last trip ticked off 3 glorious nights at James Price Point, and seriously rated it.
Where is James Price Point?
You’ll find this spectacular place roughly 60km from Broome, off the Cape Leveque Road. Its north of Quandong Point, and well south of Pender Bay, Banana Well and other Cape Leveque Camping options.
James Price Point Road Conditions
The road into James Price is bitumen initially (until you turn off Cape Leveque Road), and then you have about 32km of sandy/hard smooth rock/gravel. Parts of the road are pretty good, and other parts are very average.
People tow big vans into here, and its frequented by the locals in Broome, but there were some corrugated sections that would stress your vehicle pretty badly if you didn’t let your tyres down properly.
On that note, you should absolutely let some air out, and although we did see some 2WD vehicles in, its not something I would recommend if you value your vehicle.
Sit at a speed that is comfortable and safe, and don’t try to skip the corrugations by going so fast that you have no control when things go pear shaped.
There are a number of places where there’s holes, or dips and also turn offs, so you need to be prepared to pull up in a hurry as needed. If you are going to take it slow and easy, be respectful of those behind you, and pull over and let people pass as needed.
I’m positive that the drive out is better, probably because people take the time to let their tyres down after a rough ride in!
James Price Point Camping
Today, the main attraction to James Price Point is the camping, which is 100% free, and has more locations for you to pull up than you can poke a stick at.
If you have a light setup, you can park on the beach in a huge number of places both north and south of James Price Point.
If you are a bit heavier, you can camp on the hard red ‘rock’ at the base of the cliffs in a number of locations. Alternatively, a lot of people camp on top of the cliffs, and either walk or drive down as they want.
All of the spots have their own pro’s and con’s, and in terms of scenery you can’t really go wrong with any. It really is one of the most picturesque places I’ve ever visited, and we fell in love very quickly.
This is easily one of the best Beach Camping WA options we’ve done so far.
We drove some 8km north of James Price Point, and there were still camp grounds available in different spots. Even in school holidays in July there was plenty of room, and I doubt you’d ever have a hard time finding somewhere to stay.
There are no amenities. That means no water, no toilets, no caretakers and no help for a significant drive. You need to take out what you brought in, and do your best to leave zero trace.
James Price Point Camping is absolutely stunning, with more options and incredible scenery than you can poke a stick at!
Mosquitos, flies and bugs
We had no mosquitos, and very few flies at Pender Bay, and had hoped for the same at James Price Point. Overall it was pretty good, but the period just after sunset the mosquitos would come out in swarms and Sarah got bitten about 15 times in 10 minutes one night.
They really are pain in the backside, and you should plan to be indoors, or to be well covered and sprayed up for that period.
There were a lot more flies at James Price Point during the day too, which was only occasionally annoying.
We did end up with about 10 inside our camper trailer buzzing around one night though, but when you are camping its just one of those things you can’t control, and its better than being at home any day of the week!
James Price Point Fishing
Like the rest of the Cape Leveque coastline, the fishing is fantastic at James Price Point, if you get all of your stars in a line. We saw a number of people catching Bluebone, and whilst we were unsuccessful its still good fun to flick a line around.
The tides are huge here, and if you are game enough to flick lures around, be aware that there is a good chance you’ll get a snag and lose them.
Make sure you have a good look around at low tide, as you’ll find that nice ‘sandy’ patch you thought you were fishing in is actually just a bit of flat rock, with nothing around it.
Fires at James Price Point
You can have fires at James Price point, but you should bring your own wood in, and use the fire pits that are already in place.
It’s a bit sad to see hundreds of fire pits all over the place, with ash and fire remains left by those who’ve made yet another fire pit.
We used a portable fire pit, and just tipped the ash out on the last day into a fire pit, and if everyone did this they could have fires where they wanted without scarring the land scape. It’s such a magic area, and we need to look after it.
How does it compare to other camp sites on Cape Leveque?
We’ve stayed at Middle Lagoon, James Price Point, Kooljaman and Pender Bay, and have visited Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, Willie Creek, Quandong Point and Barred Creek.
There’s plenty more great camp sites on Cape Leveque, but our two favourites so far are James Price Point and Pender Bay. One is free, they both have insane views and we’d happily spend a week at either.
What’s nearby that is worth a look?
Quandong Point
Another free camp on Cape Leveque is Quandong Point, and you actually drive past the turn off on the way into James Price. It’s another fantastic spot, with great rock pools for the kids. I don’t think you wouldn’t go wrong staying at either.
Barred Creek
Further south (and also on the way in) lies Barred Creek. This is a pretty spectacular place, especially when the tides go in and out. It’s also got free camping, and is hugely popular. You absolutely need a 4WD to get to the beach, and even more so to get to the mouth of the creek.
We really enjoyed Barred Creek, but with young kids would always be on edge with a resident crocodile living there. If our kids were both a bit older, we’d happily spend a few days kicking back at Barred Creek too.
The rest of Cape Leveque
Honestly, you can’t really go wrong anywhere on Cape Leveque. There are heaps of other places we’d love to check out, and we probably wouldn’t go back to Broome again purely because its too busy.
We would be more than happy to spend a month exploring everything on Cape Leveque, and there are plenty more camp sites on Wikicamps that people rave about. We’ll have to go back!
Have you been to James Price Point? What did you think of it? Is there a better camp site on Cape Leveque?
Keen to see more? Here’s our YouTube video:
Hey Stephen,
You can, but…you need to accept that there is a risk of salt water crocodiles being around, although it would appear to be quite rare unless you are close to the creeks. We swam at James Price, Kooljaman, Pender Bay, Middle Lagoon, Cable beach and so forth.
I make a habit of speaking to the locals in the area, ensuring you can see clearly and not going out too far. We did consider free diving at Pender Bay and the owner said its usually fine, but they do have crocodiles come past occasionally (and a bloke did get attacked there a couple of years ago).
At James Price we found a couple of nice ‘rock pools’ that were quite protected and swam there.
Avoid swimming anywhere near creeks though, but sometimes the locals still do!
At the end of the day it comes down to the risk level you are willing to take!
All the best
Aaron
Can U swim at James Price Point & other places on Cape Leveque??